New Arrivals

Best Sauvignon Blanc at the 2020 Halliday Wine Companion Awards

James Halliday "A selection of the highest quality fruit, fermented in two barriques. Upon completion, the wine remained on lees for a further 15 months with a bit of batonnage to imbue textural complexity. More reticent aromatically than the standard cuvee, the future lies tucked in between the baby fat of piercing fruit intensity and the sheer tenacity of flavour. This deserves a place among the country's few seriously fine examples - it will unravel beautifully with patience."

Top Rated Chardonnay at the 2020 Halliday Wine Companion Awards

98 Points - James Halliday "A low yielding crop from the estate's home vineyard was fermented in equal parts new and used barriques, with full mlf, before a further 18 months of ageing in the same vessels, imparting a key lime zing to the aroma and a finely tuned meld of match strike flint. Lemon curd, white peach and grapefruit pulp purr along finely tuned mineral cylinders. This is exceptional, with winemaking a point. A challenge to differentiate between top white Burgundy and the stamp of a regional superstar!"

Top Rated Cabernet Sauvignon at the 2020 Halliday Wine Companion Awards

97 Points - James Halliday "Open-fermented, plunged three times daily, before 17 days on skins, 3 years in barrel plus another 15 months of settling prior to dispatch, the result is a lustrous cabernet. Crushed herb melds effortlessly with cassis, violet, gummy bear pastille, black olive and a swab of bay leaf tannins. There is so much glycerol, that it is already a nice drink. Perfumed and inviting. However, my suggestion is to test your patience, cellaring it for 8 years onwards."

96 Points - James Halliday "From a dry-grown vineyard in Wilyabrup planted in the ‘70s, hand-picked, open-fermented, 18 days on skins, matured in French barriques for 3 years with a further 15 months in bottle before release. Stuart Pym makes light work of what is a complex exercise, and a patient one at that given the time in oak and thereafter in bottle. It has a texture and structure all of its own, verging on velvety, yet reminding me that the cassis, black olive and dried bay leaf could only come from cabernet."

Campbell Mattison, Wine Companion “Carbon copy of the excellent '15 release. Dark cherry-berry flavours, inlays of woodsy spices, mint and wood smoke as highlights. It's fresh, fleshy, pumped with fruit but more than a little savoury. It finishes firm and strong; it's in top form.”

98++ Points - Stuart McCloskey “Unfolding in the glass with wonderful aromas of sweet, buttered pastry, citrus oil, vanilla bean, sesame and saline.. The texture is incredible, lavish and coats every facet. The sheer depth for such a young Chardonnay is quite astonishing and will be at its peak in 3-4 years. A characteristic of warm bread with a creamy nuttiness is super-attractive as is the indescribable textural sensation. Satiny smooth certainly describes aspects but the sheer completeness is a tougher task. This is far from blousy – femininity and precision being the optimum characteristics. The acidity is clear and helps balance that textural element. One of the best ‘young’ Aussie Chardonnays I have sampled in a very long time. Almost speechless, therefore I should shut up. Served in Zalto Bordeaux glassware (Do not overchill – circa 11 degrees will be perfect).”

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front “Stonefruit, hazelnut and nougat, mint, cinnamon and flowers. It’s smooth and gently creamy with a subtle Jersey caramel richness, brine and milky flavour, fine powdery texture, touch of apple kombucha tang, poise and balance, and a dry finish of excellent length and persistence. Complex. Suave. Delightful to drink.”

Campbell Mattinson, Wine Companion - “A wild beast of a wine with smoke, rubber, spice, florals and forest berry flavours running rampant, though there is a healthy churn of tannin here too. There's nothing straight-laced about this… love it.”

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front “Cherry, blackcurrant, spice, meaty too, some mint and perfume. Fleshy and full of slightly sour cherry and blackcurrant flavour, a cool feel, tannin thick through the middle, and some amaro flavours on the finish. Excellent wine.”

Full tasting note for this fabulous Pinot Noir to follow...

Mike Bennie, The Wine Front “It greets drinkers with that mix of sour-sweet cherry fragrance wafting through sweet earth, undergrowth, brambly-hedgerow kind of scents. The palate has a suppleness and that general sense of ‘dryness’, a powdery web of fine tannin draped on succulent sour-sweet cherry flavours, licks of nutty-savouriness and a quick suck on a ham bone gamey quality. The length is epic, a gentle staining that lasts with little stony-minerally chomps in the palate. It has that more open weave feel to it than so many polished and preened Australian pinot noirs, and better for it. Compelling wine.”